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Dryer Vent Cleaning

You likely have a dryer in your home.

Do you ever give it much thought though? How often do you think about doing some routine maintenance on your dryer? Are you aware of the potential risks and dangers that a clothes dryers poses to you and your family? Actually, although you may not realize it, dryer vent cleaning is an important step to take to keep yourself safe.

There are many injuries and some deaths every year due to fires that start in clothes dryers. Some estimates put this number as high as 15,000 fires a year. Most of these disasters could have been avoided by taking the simple step of cleaning out the dryer's vent.

Dryers heat up to extremely high temperatures and thus they pose a fire hazard. Safety precautions and security measures need to be taken with your clothes dryer just like you do with any other appliances that produces heat in your home.

Dryers pose risks other than just fires. When your dryer vent is clogged, it can cost you a ton of money by using lots more energy than necessary. The material stuck in the dryer vent is an ideal breeding ground for molds that can sicken your entire family. If your dryer is gas operated, you can even get carbon monoxide seeping into your home with dangerous consequences.

In order to avoid all these hazards, you need to maintain a proper schedule of dryer vent cleaning. The usual recommendation is that you clean out the vents at least two times every year. If you use your dryer daily or almost daily, you probably want to clear out your dryer vents three or four times a year.

Dryer vent cleaning is necessary because the lint trap in your dryer does not capture all the lint produced when drying your clothes. As the moist air exits the dryer through the vent hose, small lint particles are carried along with it. As time goes by, this lint builds up on the insides of the vent.

In time, the air flow decreases due to this blockage, and that is when all the previously mentioned bad effects can begin to occur.

Your energy consumption increases as the dryer works harder and runs longer to dry your clothes.

Mold begins to grow in the moist lint lining the vent, and that begins to spread through the air in your home.

Carbon monoxide can more easily seep back into your home as it has a difficult time exiting through the clogged vent.

The lint itself poses a fire risk as it is highly flammable and can catch fire easily. This can quickly spread and take over the whole room or the whole house.

As you can see, dryer vent cleaning is vitally important to the health and safety of your entire family. Take the time to clean out your dryer vent and inspect it at least twice each year. The minimal amount of time you invest in this will reap rich rewards in contributing to the safety of your home.